The German Competition Authority publishes a paper on ’Big Data and Competition’ as Big Data and digital markets remain in the focus of EU competition authorities

German Competition Authority, Report on Big data and Competition, 6 October 2017

I. Introduction
On 6 October, the German Federal Cartel Office ('FCO') launched its new series of papers on 'Competition and Consumer Protection in the Digital Economy'. [1] The first paper deals with 'Big Data and Competition'. The same day, a 'real-life example' of competition enforcement in Big Data became public. The EU Commission confirmed unannounced inspections in 'a few Member States' concerning online access to bank customer's account data by competing service providers. [2]
In the words of Andreas Mundt, president of the FCO 'the special characteristics of digital markets have created new challenges for competition policy and enforcement.' [3] With its new series of papers the FCO continues the public debate on topical competition policy issues highlighting the interfaces